iPhone 5 Pre-Orders Slip to 3 to 4 Weeks at Apple.com

Apple’s online store is now listing the iPhone 5′s shipping dates as three to four weeks, a week longer than Apple quoted just yesterday. This is the third time Apple’s extended the iPhone 5’s estimated ship date since putting it up for sale last Friday with an original ship date of September 21st. iPhone 5 orders placed today will be delivered as late as October 10.

As you can see in the below image from Apple’s iPhone 5 pre-order page, customers will have to wait this long regardless of which carrier and capacity they choose.

iPhone 5 shoppers who are set on the Verizon model may be better off ordering directly from Verizon. The carrier is promising iPhone 5 orders placed today will be delivered to customers on October 5, which is 15 days from today.

AT&T is estimating new iPhone 5 pre-orders will be delivered in 14 to 21 business days, which means customers will have to wait as late as October 18. Those opting for AT&T versions of the iPhone 5 are better off ordering directly from Apple as they’ll get their iPhone 5s about eight days earlier.

Those looking to take advantage of Sprint’s unlimited data plans should order directly from Sprint. The carrier currently has the shortest iPhone 5 pre-order shipping estimates. The Sprint 16GB iPhone 5 will ship within two weeks of ordering today. The 32GB and 64GB iPhone 5 will ship within one week.

Of course all three carriers and Apple are simply providing estimates at this point and none guarantee exact delivery dates. iPhone 5 buyers that read the fine print will see that the delivery dates aren’t set in stone. Even those who pre-ordered iPhone 5s the first day they went on sale may be waiting past the September 21 launch date. AT&T customers in particular are getting the runaround, with some seeing mixed dates from AT&T’s Web site, customer service emails and directly from AT&T employees.

The only way to guarantee you’ll get an iPhone 5 faster than pre-ordering from Apple or one of its partners is to stand in line Friday. Apple and its carrier partners will begin selling the iPhone 5 Friday morning on a first-come, first-served basis. Other Apple iPhone 5 retailers, such as Best Buy and Wal-mart, have various pre-order and wait-list systems in place.

Those with more money than time will be able to purchase their iPhone 5s from resellers on Craigslist and eBay. Many early retail units will be bought up by people looking to turn a quick profit. We’re already seeing iPhone 5 pre-orders going for more than $1,300.

Advertisement

The Apple iPhone 5 is the first major iPhone redesign since the iPhone 4 replaced the iPhone 3GS in June 2010. The iPhone 5 is taller than the iPhone 4/4S, has an aluminum back and is the first iPhone to feature 4G LTE technology. It is 18% thinner and 20% lighter than the previous two iPhone models.

64gb black ordered at apple.com 9.14 at 7:15a EST. Apple’s initial email gave a delivery date of 10.5. UPS later showed 9.28. Today, UPS tracking shows “early delivery” for 9.26. So, the dates posted at the site are worst-case dates. If the threads t MacRumors forums are an indication, most folks get their iPhones weeks earlier than initially stated.

I preordered the day they came out. After seeing my original ship date of the 28th of this month change to oct 19th I called and was told my order was on hold because my card didn’t go through. Even though a customer service rep verified the day I ordered that it did. Verizon never notified me of this with a call or email. Had to reorder. Verizon has screwed me over royally. Someone in sales screwed up, now I have to pay. Starting to rethink if I want to deal with this hassle.